Welcome to the Buddhist Boot Camp Podcast. Our intention is to awaken, enlighten, enrich, and inspire a simple and uncomplicated life. Discover the benefits of mindful living with your host, Timber Hawkeye. People often ask me how it's possible for Buddhism to be centered around love, yet simultaneously be all about non-attachment and letting go? Western culture believes that love leads to attachment and vice versa. But love and attachment
are not the same thing. In fact, they are opposites. Attachment is fear-based, not love-based. Attachment is selfish, not selfless. True love is liberating, not confining. And if love isn't unconditional in every sense of the word, then it isn't love at all. If you only love someone because they love you back, or even with the expectation that they always will, then you're in love with being loved, not with the other person.
There's nothing inherently wrong with that; it's quite common, actually, but it isn't love. It is a self-centered need to feel important, cared-for, and admired. True love has less to do with what you receive as what you have to give. And it has nothing to do with possession, nor does it come with any contingencies. Keep in mind, however, that while your love for someone can be unconditional, being in a relationship
with them can most certainly have conditions. Whether it's blood relation or chemistry, it doesn't always imply compatibility. I have personally said to numerous people in the past that I couldn't imagine my life without them, yet here I am after years of not having them in my life for one reason or another, and I'm okay. This has taught me to be less melodramatic and more honest with myself and with others,
that I love them dearly, but without attachment. This makes my love stronger and more intense, not because it lasts forever but because I realize nothing ever does. It makes me appreciate each moment and each person that much more. So ask yourself about the people you love, how much you love them and whether you truly do. Would you continue loving them if they stopped loving you? Or is your love
contingent upon them loving you back? Are they filling some void in your life, or are you living a full life, and they are enriching it by giving you the opportunity to share it with them? I Remember lyrics by Björk where she says: How could I be so immature to think that he could replace the missing element in me? How extremely lazy of me! Timber Hawkeye is the bestselling author of Faithfully Religionless and Buddhist Boot Camp.
For additional information, please visit BuddhistBootCamp.com, where you can order autographed books to support the Prison Library Project, watch Timber's inspiring TED Talk, and join our monthly mailing list. We hope you have enjoyed this episode and invite you to subscribe for more thought-provoking discussions. Thank you for being a Soldier of Peace in the Army of Love. 🙏